That had seemed a very human punishment to Edward. That was not how the apes were with one another. He wondered if he would ever get off this island, over the abysmal sea.
Edward woke the next morning and found himself thinking about Denny. He felt he had to go to see him, to talk to him about Marcia. He wanted to punish Denny but did not know that he would be able to do that. Jack had been down at the quay all that morning and Edward knew that he would find Denny alone at his house, if he could find him at all. He made his way across the heather with empty hands.
In the ape world, to have three men competing for one woman would be a disaster. Who would win that competition if it were allowed to run its course? Who would Marcia choose if she were allowed to choose? A huge beetle zoomed past his ear.
Would it be a good thing if Denny were cleverer? More like Jack and less like the apes. The difference between himself and Denny was not a matter of education. It was more to do with language, or education made clear through language. It was not what Edward knew, because Denny knew a lot. But both Denny and Jack had a predictable lack of mental agility. If Denny were the father of Marcia’s child, then it might be born an idiot.
He noted the tarn over to the left and became more aware of his surroundings. He was surprised he had not seen more orangutans. There were so many now it was unusual to see none on even a short walk and Edward had initially been on his guard against a large group. Jack had once joked, if it was a joke, that they might invite hunters to the island, as a way of raising revenue they did not need. He saw the smoke from the Nortons’ fire. You could smell it even from here in this clear air. He might get a plate of stew before he had to speak harshly to this hairy boy.
He could see things were not right before he could see clearly how wrong they were. He had never known Denny the worse for drink except at his party and only a very drunk man would lie like that, and he was too close to the fire. The fire smelled bad. There were no apes around at all.
Denny was dead and his shoulder and one side of his face were burned or at least blistered. On the way to being meat. One arm was twisted under him unnaturally. He had been thrown or dragged there. He had not fallen like that. Where was Jack? Where were the apes? Edward could see Denny’s rifle propped by the door. He got the boy out of the fire. One side of him smouldered but the other side of his face was largely undamaged by the flames. The fire had not been fierce. Denny’s body must have put it out. The unburned profile was the wrong colour. Red, even purple, but not because of the fire. He might have been poisoned, Edward thought.
Edward knew Jack was down by the quay, but he felt sure he would never see him again. This part of the island was for the apes now.
Edward had been running as best he could until his legs would not carry him through the heather any farther. He had fallen more than once and his face stung with the cuts from the unforgiving woody stems. He had wanted to get to the quay but did not really know the best way from Jack’s house and he had not wanted to go via the compound because that was too far and perhaps for fear of what he might find there. Marcia had gone to the cliff-top or the seal beach.
He stumbled again. When he raised his head, that old female orangutan was looking into his watery eyes or off to the side of him as though she were blind. Her averted gaze allowed him to stare at her. She was beautiful. It was natural to love the apes, because they were beautiful. If this creature would come back to the compound with him, he would give her a nun’s name as he had with Grace and Charity and others. What would that be? This is what was happening, so he knew that it was what was meant to happen, what had been hoped for. He reached for her face, the moustacheless chin beard a little grey. He stroked the beautiful muzzle. He hoped he had been forgiven for slapping at her hand after his swim in the tarn. She touched his sharp cuts with the tips of her tough fingers, tenderly.
CONTRIBUTORS’ BIOGRAPHIES
Richard Lawrence Bennett is a writer and psychogeographer based in Arundel, West Sussex. His work has been published in Ambit and in the Lounge Companion. He is seeking representation for his debut novel The Ramayana of Croydon about mysticism in south London. You can find out more about him at www.richardlawrencebennett.com.
Luke Brown is the author of the novels My Biggest Lie (2014) and Theft (2020). He grew up on the coast of Lancashire and works as an editor in London as well as teaching at the University of Manchester. ‘Beyond Criticism’ was shortlisted and commended for Best Original Fiction in the Stack Awards 2019.
David Constantine has published several volumes of poetry and a novel, The Life-Writer, as well as four short story collections: Under the Dam (2005), The Shieling (2009), Tea at the Midland (2012) and The Dressing-Up Box (2019). With his wife Helen he edited Modern Poetry in Translation. In addition, he has translated the work of Hölderlin, Brecht, Goethe, Kleist, Michaux and Jaccottet. Born in Salford, he lives in Oxford.
Tim Etchells is an artist and writer based in Sheffield and London. His work shifts between performance, visual art and fiction. As well as being Professor of Performance and Writing at Lancaster University, he works in a wide variety of contexts, notably as the leader of Sheffield performance group Forced Entertainment. His 2019 collection Endland (And Other Stories) was a reprise (plus new stories) of his 1999 collection Endland Stories (Pulp Books). He was the winner of the 2019 Manchester Fiction Prize.
Nicola Freeman started out in arts journalism and publishing and has since worked as a curator, writer and editor in museums and galleries. She is a Jerwood/Arvon mentee (fiction) 2019/20. ‘Halloween’ is her first published short story.
Amanthi Harris was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in London. She studied Fine Art at Central St Martins and has degrees in Law and Chemistry from the University of Bristol. Her novel, Beautiful Place, is published by Salt Publishing in the UK and Pan Macmillan India. Lantern Evening, a novella, won the Gatehouse Press New Fictions Prize 2016 and was published by Gatehouse Press. Her short stories have been published by Serpent’s Tail and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. www.amanthiharris.com
Andrew Hook has had over a hundred and fifty short stories published, with several novels, novellas and collections also in print. ‘The Girl With the Horizontal Walk’ is part of a series of ‘Hollywood celebrity death’ stories, Candescent Blooms, currently seeking a publisher. Stories from the series have appeared in Ambit and Great Jones Street. Forthcoming are a collection of mostly SF stories, Frequencies of Existence, and O For Obscurity, Or, The Story of N, a fictionalised biography of the Mysterious N Senada written in collaboration with the legendary San Francisco art collective The Residents.
Sonia Hope’s short fiction has appeared in magazines including Ambit, Nottingham Review and Ellipsis Zine. She is a Jerwood/Arvon Mentee (Fiction) 2019/20 and was shortlisted for the Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize 2019. She is a Librarian and lives in London.
Hanif Kureishi has published eight novels, including, most recently, The Nothing. His most recent book, What Happened?, a collection of stories and essays, was published in 2019. Born in Kent, he now lives in London.
Helen Mort w as b orn i n S heffield a nd g rew u p i n Chesterfield. She has published two poetry collections, Division Street (2013), and No Map Could Show Them (2016), and one novel, Black Car Burning (2019). Her short story collection, Exire, was published by Wrecking Ball and she co-edited One For the Road: Pubs and Poetry (Smith-Doorstop) with Stuart Maconie. She teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Jeff Noon is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and playwright, born in Manchester and now living in Brighton. His first novel, Vurt (1993), won the Arthur C Clark Award. His most recent novels are Slow Motion Ghosts (2019) and Creeping Jenny (2020).
Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British writer. Her debut novel, Butterfly Fish, won a Betty Trask award. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Observer, Guardian and Huffington Post among other publications. Her short story collection Speak Gigantular (Jacarand
a Books) was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Jhalak Prize and the Saboteur Awards. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her latest collection of stories, Nudibranch, was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize and one story, ‘Grace Jones’, won the AKO Caine Prize For Fiction.
KJ Orr was born in London. Light Box, her first collection, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2017, and includes ‘Disappearances’, which won the BBC National Short Story Award 2016. Her stories have appeared in publications including the Irish Times, Dublin Review and White Review, and been broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Bridget Penney was born in Edinburgh and is now based in Brighton. Her book publications are Honeymoon with Death and Other Stories (1991, Polygon), Index (2008, Book Works) and Licorice (2020, Book Works). Stories and non-fiction have appeared in print and online magazines, among them Gorse, Snow lit rev and 3:AM Magazine. She is founder and co-editor of Invisible Books, publishing innovative poetry and prose through the 1990s with occasional manifestations since. Currently she is guest-editor for Book Works’ new series, Intertices.
Diana Powell lives in the far west of Wales. Her short fiction has been published in journals and anthologies such as The Lonely Crowd, Crannog and The Blue Nib. ‘Whale Watching’ was the 2019 ChipLit Festival winner and was runner-up in this year’s Society of Authors ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award. Her work has also featured in a number of other competitions, including the 2020 TSS Cambridge short story prize (third place), the 2016 Sean O’Faolain (long-listed), Over-the-Edge New Writer (short-listed), Cinnamon Press Prize (runner-up). Her novella Esther Bligh (Holland House Books) was published in 2018 and her short story collection Trouble Crossing the Bridge (Chaffinch Press) came out in July.
David Rose was born in 1949. After attending a local Grammar, he spent his working life in the Post Office. His debut story was published in the Literary Review in 1989, since when he has appeared in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies. He was co-owner and fiction editor of Main Street Journal. His first novel, Vault, was published in 2011, followed by a collection, Posthumous Stories, in 2013 (both Salt). His second novel, Meridian, appeared in 2015 from Unthank Books. He lives between Richmond and Windsor.
Sarah Schofield’s stories have been published in Lemistry, Bio-Punk, Thought X, Beta Life, Spindles and Conradology (all C omma P ress), Spilling Ink Flash Fiction Anthology and Woman’s Weekly among others. She has been shortlisted for the Bridport and Guardian Travel Writing competitions and won the Orange New Voices Prize, Writer’s Inc and the Calderdale Fiction Prize. She is an Associate Tutor of Creative Writing at Edge Hill University and runs writing courses and workshops in a variety of community settings. She is working on her debut short story collection.
Adrian Slatcher was born in Walsall and lives in Manchester. He writes poetry, fiction and music, and co-edits the poetry magazine/press Some Roast Poet (someroastpoetry.wordpress.com). His short fiction has previously appeared in Confingo, Unthology and Litro, and in Best British Short Stories 2018. He is currently working on a novel.
NJ Stallard is a short story writer and poet. Her work has been featured in publications including the White Review, Tank and Ambit. She was the winner of the Aleph Writing Prize 2018.
Robert Stone was born in Wolverhampton. He works in a press cuttings agency in London. Before that he was a teacher and then foreman of a London Underground station. He has two children and lives with his partner in Ipswich. He has had stories published in Stand, Panurge, The Write Launch, Eclectica, Wraparound South and Confingo. Micro-stories have been published by Palm-Sized Press, 5x5, Star 82 Review and Clover & White.
Stephen Thompson is a novelist, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. His novels are Toy Soldiers, Missing Joe, Meet Me Under the Westway and No More Heroes. His feature-length TV drama, Sitting in Limbo, about the Windrush Scandal, was screened by the BBC in spring 2020. He is the editor and publisher of the online literary journal, The Colverstone Review.
Zakia Uddin is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
‘Energy Thieves: 5 Dialogues’, copyright © Richard Lawrence Bennett 2019, was first published in Ambit issue 235, and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Beyond Criticism’, copyright © Luke Brown 2019, was first published in Mal issue 4, and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The Phone Call’, copyright © David Constantine 2019, was first published in The Dressing-Up Box and Other Stories (Comma Press), and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Maxine’, copyright © Tim Etchells 2019, was first published in Endland (And Other Stories), and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Halloween’, copyright © Nicola Freeman 2019, was first published in Halloween (Nightjar Press), and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘In the Mountains’, copyright © Amanthi Harris 2019, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 23 August 2019.
‘The Girl With the Horizontal Walk’, copyright © Andrew Hook 2019, was first published in The Girl With the Horizontal Walk (Salò Press), and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Belly’, copyright © Sonia Hope 2019, was first published online in Ellipsis Zine and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘She Said He Said’, copyright © Hanif Kureishi 2019, was first published in The New Yorker issue 22 July 2019, and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Weaning’, copyright © Helen Mort 2019, was first published in The Book of Sheffield (Comma Press) edited by Catherine Taylor, and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The Further Dark’, copyright © Jeff Noon & Bridget Penney 2019, was first published in The London Reader issue Autumn 2019, ‘Existential Dread in the Digital Void’, and is reprinted by permission of the authors.
‘Nudibranch’, copyright © Irenosen Okojie 2019, was first published in Nudibranch (Dialogue Books), and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Backbone’, copyright © KJ Orr 2019, was first published in Mslexia issue 81, and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Whale Watching’, copyright © Diana Powell 2019, was first published online on the Chipping Norton Literary Festival website and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Greetings From the Fat Man in Postcards’, copyright © David Rose 2019, was first published online in Litro and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Safely Gathered In’, copyright © Sarah Schofield 2019, was first published in Wall: Nine Stories From Edge Hill Writers (Edge Hill University) edited by Ailsa Cox and Billy Cowan is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Dreams Are Contagious’, copyright © Adrian Slatcher 2019, was first published online in LitroUSA and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The White Cat’, copyright © NJ Stallard 2019, was first published in The White Cat (The A leph), a nd i s reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Purity’, copyright © Robert Stone 2019, was first published online in The Write Launch and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Same Same But Different’, copyright © Stephen Thompson 2019, was first published in The Good Journal issue 3, and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Vashri’, copyright © Zakia Uddin 2019, was first published in The White Review issue 24, and is reprinted by permission of the author.
BEST BRITISH SHORT STORIES
Best British Short Stories 2011
(978-1-907773-12-9)
Best British Short Stories 2012
(978-1-907773-18-1)
Best British Short Stories 2013
(978-1-907773-47-1)
Best British Short Stories 2014
(978-1-907773-67-9)
Best British Short Stories 2015
(978-1-78463-027-0)
Best British Short Stories 2016
(978-1-78463-063-8)
Best British Short Stories 2017
(978-1-78463-112-3)
Best British Short Stories 2018
(978-1-78463-136-9)
Best British Short Stories 2020 Page 21
